New Governance and the Case of Activation Policies: Comparing Experiences in Denmark and the Netherlands

This article explores the importance of new forms of governance in active labour market policies (activation) in two countries: Denmark and the Netherlands. Drawing on research with key stakeholders in these countries, we analyse how new governance, and particularly processes of contracting-out and localization, have found expression in recent reforms to activation. We conclude that localization and contracting-out may have a future role to play in the development of more locally responsive and individually focused services. But both countries have encountered problems in promoting joined-up services through local jobcentres, while contracting-out has not always led to the tailored, individually focused services envisaged by policy-makers. In both countries, there are also concerns that the restriction of the Public Employment Service to a 'gatekeeping and signposting' role will lead to inconsistencies in the quality of services, exposing the most disadvantaged to greater social risk.     

Operationalising lean in healthcare: the impact of professionalism

Abstract

Lean is endorsed as policy in practice in the UK but the challenges and complexities affecting Lean in healthcare are still to be adequately assessed. Through a qualitative single case study of an NHS organisation implementing Lean, 43 interviews with multi-disciplinary team members involved in Lean were conducted. The progress of Lean is found to be inhibited as medical professionals have failed to engage or provide clinical leadership in supporting the trajectory of Lean. This resulted in limited outcomes, sustainability implications, and failed projects. Lean is challenged by complexity and this is evident in conflicts between professional identity, corresponding status and clinical/managerial relationships. Medical professionals as a group have received a limited focus in papers assessing the progress of Lean in Healthcare from an operational perspective. Going forward, strategies for mitigating the negative impact of this can be developed to support operational managers in the healthcare domain.     

Parents and Educators: Dialogue and Development Through Partnership

SUMMARY. This paper describes an approach to working with parents which emphasises the parents' own learning process and which might be termed ‘developmental partnership’. By this is meant a relationship in which not only are the parents explicitly acknowledged as the primary educators of their own children but also that, through a process of mutual enquiry into the activities and development of these children, parents, educator and children learn and work together. A number of issues are raised about working in ‘developmental partnership’ with parents, including the role of the unconscious in relationships focused upon learning.     

Unintended consequences of Immigration Reform: Discrimination and hispanic employment

The record-keeping requirements of the Immigration Reform and Control Act(IRCA), and fines for illegal employment, may induce employers to discriminate against foreign-appearing workers. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported widespread IRCA-related discrimination but did not link reported discriminatory practices to discriminatory employment behavior. We analyze the GAO’s random survey and, controlling for selectivity effects, demonstrate that employers who report discriminatory practices actually employ fewer Hispanics. Although the measured reduction of Hispanic employment due to IRCA is fairly small, this finding parallels research alerting us to adverse consequences of a law that so far has achieved few of its intended effects.     

Food for Thought: Malnutrition and Obesity

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003: Monitoring Progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Goals. By FAO Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: Food Security and Globalization. By C. Ford Runge, Benjamin Senauer, Philip G. Pardey and Mark W. Rosegrant Combating Malnutrition: Time to Act. Edited by Stuart Gillespie, Milla McLachlan and Roger Shrimpton The Economist's Tale: A Consultant Encounters Hunger and the World Bank. By Peter Griffiths Disease‐Related Malnutrition: An Evidence‐based Approach to Treatment. By R. J. Stratton, C. J. Green and M. Elia Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All‐American Meal. By Eric Schlosser Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. By Marion Nestle Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It. By Kelly D. Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen     

Dimensions of Poverty: Status and Solutions Towards the Millennium Development Goals

Books reviewed: State of the World Population 2004: The Cairo Consensus at Ten ‐ Population, Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty. By UNFPA. How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the Early 1980s? By Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004: Monitoring Progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals. By FAO. Fifth Report on the World Nutrition Situation: Nutrition for Improved Development Outcomes. By SCN. IFPRI Annual Report 2003‐4. By IFPRI. Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done. By Task Force on Hunger. Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures. By Lester R. Brown. The State of the World's Children 2005: Childhood Under Threat. By UNICEF. Education for All: The Quality Imperative ‐ EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005. Commissioned by UNESCO. World Employment Report 2004‐05: Employment, Productivity and Poverty Reduction. By ILO. The Future of the WTO: Addressing Institutional Challenges in the New Millennium. By the Consultative Board. State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security. By the Worldwatch Institute. Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. By Jeffrey D. Sachs and the UN Millennium Project.     

Declining Numbers of Foreign Students and America's Science and Engineering Enterprise

The enterprise of science and engineering (S&E) is powerfully affected by the role of immigrants in institutions of higher education and in US labour markets (Freeman et al., 2004). Especially since the 1970s and increasingly in the 1990s, educational institutions and labour markets have experienced steady increases of foreign students and workers and have come to expect more of the same. Yet, since 2001 there have been notable downturns in the number of foreign students applying and attending US institutions of higher education.     

Explaining Family Change and Variation: Challenges for Family Demographers

Twenty years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) issued a request for proposals that resulted in the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a unique survey valuable to a wide range of family scholars. This paper describes the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of family demographers to build on the progress enabled by the NSFH and many other theoretical and methodological innovations. Our work, also supported by NICHD, will develop plans for research and data collection to address the central question of what causes family change and variation. We outline the group's initial assessments of orienting frameworks, key aspects of family life to study, and theoretical and methodological challenges for research on family change. Finally, we invite family scholars to follow our progress and to help develop this shared public good.